Updated
Now
I finally updated this site at the beginning of the year after 5 years of letting it languish untended. Writing new content has gone more slowly than I'd planned, but I've managed to push a few things out. More posts are pending:
- Reporting automation (2020-11-18)
- Modular quick-release camera strap
- Brain filters and how people see software
Personal
I am living in quiet, rural Central Texas trying to get as much hiking as I can in while the weather is nice and before late-afternoon daylight departs entirely.
I went carnivore in October 2018 as an intervention for chronic health issues. So far, for me, it's the best nutrition approach I've yet tried. It was a logical next step after restricted AIP wasn't as successful for me anymore. My staples are grass-fed beef products and pasture-raised eggs. COVID-19 related egg shortages have, thankfully, resolved.
Reading
Revisiting Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive series. This is one I violated my policy about waiting for series to be finished before starting. Since book 3 is out and book 4 is due out later this year, I decided to go back to it, but had forgotten everything from the first reading. I re-read The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance, finished book 2.5, Edgedancer, and Oathbringer. Will be starting book 3.5, Dawnshard, shortly with Rhythm of War to follow. Excellent series. Very recommended for fantasy fans.
I'm also reading The Tragedy of American Compassion, which argues that government-sponsored welfare programs have toxic incentives, neglect individual needs, and crowd out private charity that would be more effective in helping improve life for the poor. It develops its thesis through a historical overview of charity and giving in the US.
I've been working my way through The Daily Stoic this year. I have not kept a regularly page-a-day schedule very well, and the content itself is pretty shallow, but it's been helpful as a motivational philosophical text.
Recently completed
- I Am Error - Nathan Altice's excellent overview of history and technology of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). There's something about computers from the 80s that I find deeply fascinating. Machines of the era straddle between the wizardry of analog electronics and commoditized general computing hardware of more recent times. The book goes in detail on limiting features of the NES and how different games worked around them, both in software and hardware. The book is part of the Platform Studies series that aims to fuse a technical overview with historical and cultural details. This approach risks satisfying neither detail-desiring engineers nor humanities-types more interested in the cultural context, but I found the balance struck here reasonable. Recommended if you have any interest in older computing or video game platform;;s.
- Fire Upon the Deep - First book of Vernor Vinge's Zones of Thought trilogy. I went into this with no expectations other than "hard science fiction", which I think is probably the right way to approach it. Really enjoyed it.
- The Powers of the Earth and Causes of Separation - Books 1 and 2 of the Aristillus series by Travis J. Corcoran. I Kickstarted these years ago and finally got around to reading them. Great modern take on The Moon is a Harsh Mistress with a nice helping of L. Neil Smith thrown in.
- The System of the World - 3rd volume of the Baroque Cycle. Highly recommended, along with his other works.
- Starsailing - Speculative overview of solar sail technologies for inter-system and interstellar travel. More geared towards convincing 1980s NASA to take on a solar sail project than the details of the technology than I would've liked.
Work
I work remotely in the contact center of a major national boating retailer as an Operations Analyst. My work primarily involves reporting automation (mostly Python) and data wrangling, forecasting contact demand, workforce planning, managing the Contact Center Operations team, and IT administration. My major work goal for 2020 is to automate myself out of my position.
I completed a major contact center and workforce optimization platform migration at the beginning of April, which is a major improvement over our existing platforms. I am still working to iron out some issues, including some acute limitations with the WFM platform.